Today with Your Wife
by JRW9699
Summary: Or, Tommy Merlyn's Notes on How Not to Deal with Grief (Short song-fic that needed writing because...reasons)


**Today with Your Wife**

 **Rating: 'K'**

 **Characters (In order of appearance): Tommy Merlyn, Oliver Queen, Kara Danvers**

 **Summary:** _ **Or,**_ **Tommy Merlyn's Notes on How Not to Deal with Grief**

 **Authors Note: Inspired by the Jonathan Coulton song of the same name, check it out!**

* * *

In the whole 45-ish years of his existence, Tommy Merlyn had only ever hated two things. Given the circumstances the first seemed a little superfluous but, even so, it was Nazi's. More specifically it was the evil Nazi version of himself that they had all encountered over 10 years ago. The second was currently right in front of him, and just looking at it twisted his stomach into knots. The hate he felt was more directed at what _it_ represented, what _it_ meant for him, his family, and the rest of the world, more than the thing itself.

Tommy was pretty sure that the gravestone of Oliver Queen made a lot of people feel that way.

With a shaky sigh, Tommy took another step forward and kneeled, reading the gold text etched into black granite as he did.

 _Here Lies Oliver Queen_

 _1985-2028_

 _Father, Husband, Hero_

That last word meant the most to Tommy. After Oliver had died the whole world had found out that he had been The Green Arrow, and it had been nothing short of a miracle that Kara's alter ego hadn't been outed too, somehow the connection just hadn't been made. She had been hounded relentlessly by the press of course, all of them had, but Kara seemed to get it the worst. That was the other miracle; that Kara hadn't just incinerated the soulless bastards.

"Hey buddy." Tommy spoke, his voice a little weak. "So, I saw Kara today…"

Tommy let out another shaky breath, struggling to force the words out. Sometimes, he felt like an idiot for coming to this grave and talking as if Oliver could actually hear him. Tommy nor Oliver had ever been particularly religious, neither of them believed in an afterlife, yet here he was. Other times, it made him feel a whole lot better.

When Oliver had first died, Tommy had held it together pretty well, a fact he put down to having already been through the exact same thing, even if it had been nearly 21 years since the Queen's Gambit had sunk. The difference was that this time, they didn't bury an empty coffin, Oliver had most definitely been dead. A week after the funeral, Tommy had just snapped. He'd gone to the grave and cried, screamed for his best friend to find a way back to them. Tommy been furious, distraught, and numb all at the same time. The anger hadn't been for himself, but for what Oliver left behind, and not just Kara but his two children.

"I didn't mean to," Tommy continued. "Just bumped into her in the street. Soon as we did the rain started, just our luck I guess. We hid under some shop awning to wait it out. Talked about you mostly, until the storm passed through anyway."

Unconsciously, Tommy reached out the moment he paused, running a hand over the top of the stone as if to dust it. Catching himself with a sad smile, Tommy continued with his story.

"Your kids didn't seem to mind too much, just splashed around in the puddles on the sidewalk, even after Kara told them not to. It's been too long since I saw them Ollie, I'm sorry for that, I always promised you I'd keep an eye on them if anything ever happened to you. I've not done the best job of keeping that promise."

Tommy hated himself for that. Ever since Oliver had married Kara and the couple announced that they were expecting, Oliver had made Tommy swear that he would do everything he could to take care of Kara and their children should he… yeah. Tommy had honestly tried. In the first few months after Oliver's death, Kara had gone cold, she was only ever like her old-self when she was with her children. Other than that, she was like a ghost.

Kara had always been the best of them. Even after everything she had been through, losing her whole planet and almost all its people, Kara had still been the most loving, energetic person Tommy had ever met. Seeing her so broken after Oliver's death made Tommy question how any of them would ever recover.

"She seemed okay, you know. Better than I've seen her since you…" Tommy trailed off for a moment, he still struggled to say it out loud. "But I guess we both know that she wouldn't give anything away even if she wasn't, you were always stubborn like that too."

Tommy shifted a little on his knees, doing his best to ignore the numbness that was now rising in them.

"I walked them home when the storm passed. I guess I felt guilty, about the not seeing them enough. I said I'd call at some point soon, because I'm not going to fail you, Ollie, I'll keep my promise. Anyway…I kissed her goodbye, waved to the kids and…the first thought I had was to go to Verdant and get drunk, but the weirdest thing happened. The clouds completely burned away, to this warm sunshine and I just knew I had to come here."

Blinking hard to rid his eye of the involuntary tear that had formed there, Tommy shifted again, trying hard to keep anymore tears from forming.

"I just…" Tommy's voice completely broke then. "You should have been there today, Ollie. You should have been there…"


End file.
